Half damage cancels

Although I agree that cancels on preheads are dumb, I don't think the argument holds that much in body phase since there are just so many targets. With this, someone could solo Horntail using infinite smoke and multiple ranged attackers with ease.
Also, I think 50% reduction is still too low. I'd push for something like 80-90% reduction instead, otherwise you're going to see ranged attackers just afk attack the entire head phase.

 

Honestly, i like how these support skills were made for the 3rd job segment and it feels kinda a waste to see it go forgotten during boss runs. How about we instead give these aforementioned skills a secondary usage during boss runs. As these skills have been used during grinding in the 3rd job era, at maps like dual birks/ skele that casts power/def up. Yes, it does not have a cooldown which may be too op but if u're suggesting halfing the dmg cancels it wouldn't be that over powered. Also, it'd be nice to see this suggestion happen via a skill cast rather than it be by default on the boss which propels more inclusion and need for warriors as well as bringing in a slightly more interesting gameplay.

For example, Armor crash once cast during a WC and with a i.e. 50% success rate, would apply a half dmg cancel instead (we could change the color tone on the yellow WC to a faded yellow instead, visually showing it's been successfully applied and likewise for the Blue MC and buffed wings).

*Figures are for illustrative purposes only.

Armor Crash (3rd job - crusader)
Nullifies the defense buff used by the monster with a given success rate.
Level 20: MP -7; 100% probability to nullify enemy's physical defense-up
+ 50% probability to half enemy's physical damage cancel (WC)

Magic Crash (3rd job - dk)
Cancel out enemy's magical defense up skill in a certain rate.
Level 20: MP -7; 100% probability magic guard is nullified
+ 50% probability to half enemy's magical damage cancel (MC)

Power Crash (3rd job - wk)
Cancels out enemy's power up skill.
Level 20: MP -7; 100% success rate power up improvement skill of the enemy is nullified
+ 50% probability to half enemy's physical damage boost (power up/buffed)

edit (some ideas):
- ability to crash on WC/MC could be instead required to be casted directly beside the animation (heads for HT in this case instead of abs, requiring some repositioning and climbing).
- one could even apply a CD of 20-30mins or so on this skill, aligning it between TL and Ress. but that'd make it unusable for grinding, luckily, not many uses this skill.
- only caster of crash would have bonus dmg % (i.e totaling 0-30% dmg reduction) on affected boss while the non casters (crew members) would deal 50% dmg as per suggested by OP. additionally, could act as a trade off for crashers, caster could be given ( -accuracy / - hp % / remove stance effects? ) per attack debuff for the period of the WC, requiring some gear investments.
- similar concept as corsair's Homing Beacon. Could have crash skill affect successful casters only during WC, dealing 50% dmg reduction by caster and the non casters would still do 1 dmg.

 

That's how we end up with crash mules.

 

90-75% ish of damage reduce is fair than 50..

 

crash aoe radius is small, wouldnt be much of a muling issue as u gotta climb towards the WC parts lol, while sacrificing dpm

 

The dpm you win back is significantly larger than the dpm you sacrifice, it would 100% be muled.

 

you should be comparing dpm by repositioning to cast vs dpm with perma halfed WC, i reckon repositioning would be lower in most scenario.

im not saying it won't be muled but if a skill had to be cast to reduce WC effects, im sure in most case it'd be lower dmg dealt in total than with when the boss has WC already perma halfed. even if crash mules appear, it would be more meso sink than sed shads.

 

In Horntail the place where crash/dispel works is bottom center abs. They don't function if you're hugging heads and using those skills

 

HH mules coming back?

 

we can make them

 

Why is always "it's gonna be muled" the first argument against giving jobs good utility. Every good utility or buff is gonna be muled, that's just the reality of the meta and the obsessive urge to min-max this game. I don't think it's a good reason to dismiss making these crash skills relevant. Paladin and Hero are crying for some utility, so why not give them this?

 

It's because of this reality, and the desire to maintain the game's difficulty thats why "its gonna be muled" is always the first argument.

Not sure if this is possible, but may I suggest a 1% damage reflection to replace wc/mc

 

First reaction is it’s going to be muled because muling is here to stay and it heavily impacts game balance. If you can figure out a way for an active warrior to be able to crash over any mule the suggestion might have more promise.

 

With how heavily muling is ingrained into the server at this point, we cannot afford to ignore the muling implications of such changes. When trying to make a class relevant, any significant balance changes, especially ones that add party utility where there previously was none, must be made in a way such that a mule does not effortlessly make moot the benefits of bringing an actual user of that class or else it will have done nothing but further powercreep the server.

The change needs to impact the class's overall place in the meta and the desirability of actual users who play the class, not simply add another tool to the muling kit, and there are certainly ways to go about doing that if we get a bit more creative than "press x button to receive y benefits". That being said, there are other ways to make heroes useful without being as heavy-handed, such as changing the mechanics of HT to better favor cleave.

 

Make probability and/or cancel reduction scale with attack damage in an exponential manner. This way low damage mules don't benefit as much (0~10%) unless significant investments are made, while warrior mains can rake in more benefits (30%~70%) as they continue to reach the end game.

Of course this is a balancing headache and overly simplistic, but it's one way to counter muling.

 

this is pretty nice tbh, maybe we could also take a look into the possibility of crash skill casters receiving debuffs as well (-acc/ -hp % per attack skill) during the WC duration as a trade off: casters could also get more dmg % (i.e totaling 0-30% dmg reduction) than the halfed dmg (50% dmg reduction) the other non casters (crew) would be dealing.
*added this up above

 

Thank you for the explanation. My perspective comes from being a pretty casual player. You may understand my frustration when reading the forums and the largest and constant obstacle to balancing is they way the veterans have decided the game should be played...